Madonna Rucellai

work by Duccio

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Last updated

June 30, 2026

Quick Summary

The Rucellai Madonna is an altarpiece painted by Duccio around 1285. Duccio, a significant painter from Siena, worked in the traditional Byzantine style but incorporated innovations that foreshadowed the International Gothic genre.

Commissioned by a Dominican confraternity, the altarpiece was installed in Florence's Santa Maria Novella church, later lending its name to the artwork. Duccio's depiction of the Madonna and Child shows a new emphasis on form, with realistic treatment of their bodies and the use of chiaroscuro (light and dark shading) to create a sense of three-dimensionality. While the angels surrounding them retain a more traditional, floating quality, the realistic rendering of the figures marked a departure from earlier works. The painting is now part of the Uffizi Gallery's collection.1

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Duccio
Beginnings
Maria Novella, now called the Madonna Rucellai. From the time of Giorgio Vasari, a minor Florentine Renaissance painter who was the earliest, and probably the most influential, biographer of early Italian artists, this altarpiece, which was the largest yet painted, was considered to be a masterpiece of the Florentine painter…
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Maria Novella, now called the Madonna Rucellai. From the time of Giorgio Vasari, a minor Florentine Renaissance painter who was the earliest, and probably the most influential, biographer of early Italian artists, this altarpiece, which was the largest yet painted, was considered to be a masterpiece of the Florentine painter…
Read More